The Engine of a Million Plots
by TankNLegs
Summary: A new student with a dark purpose enters a Duel Academy far different than any we have known. A life that was borrowed becomes a life that is owned. The people of this school will change, forever. [OCs]
1. Chapter 1

Awaken. The lights above are unbearable as you stare into them uncontrollably. There is no movement in this place, you are like a stone. The lights above you seem as distant as heaven itself. Is that where God lives, above in those lights? You have no memory, no idea of what is below, so only what above catches your interest. Those lights, the blank canvas by which you may paint the portrait of reality. Your reality.

The lights are interrupted, a great darkness above you. It is a face, bespectacled and taciturn. It looks down on you with detached curiosity. There are words being spoken, you can partially make them out.

"Subject-, is stable. - will be prepared to be sent to the academy."

A second face appears; the light is obscured almost entirely now. Their voices are indistinguishable, yet they are all that exists in this growing darkness.

"Will subject be able to fulfill mission -?"

"Physical functions are optimal. Subject has the capacity to - the target."

"Subject will be placed away from target. Target exists elsewhere, - will be difficult."

"Subject is prepared. Target exists in Ra Yellow, Subject in Slifer Red."

"Failure is not an option."

"Now awaken, and fulfill your purpose."

* * *

A boy of dark complexion and short stature awakens on his bed. He bolts upright like a frightened animal. He scans the room suspiciously. The scene preceding having just played out in his mind. Where does it come from, he wonders? Why couldn't he remember its significance? Who were the voices and what was their plan? Who could the target be?

Before he could think any further into those questions, the door burst open revealing two boys around the age of fifteen. One slightly shorter than the other spoke slightly below a yell.

"Dan get up! We have to go to school."

"Oliver do you need to be so loud," the other boy's voice radiated empathy.

"Nonsense! We can't afford to miss a single day of classes! It's a little weird that he isn't up anyway. Usually he doesn't even wait for us."

The boy on the bed sat up with fading tension. That name, Dan, it had roused an understanding within him. That was his name, his identity, and whatever the dream was it could wait.

Dan was a student at Duel Academy, the premier school for students learning to become professional duelist. Students from all over the world dreamed from childhood to be accepted into this school. The opportunity to go to class was not lost on any student who had earned that privilege.

Along with the memory of who he was, Dan also now knew who they were. Oliver and Marty were his roommates, his classmates, and ostensibly his friends. Both were similar in quite a few respects; they were brunettes with blue eyes. While all three boys were short, Marty was amazingly so. At 5'1, his meek nature stood out even more. The freckles on his face made him appear even more childish. His eyes had a faded quality to them that could almost project sadness. He was quiet, reserved and a stark contrast to Oliver. Oliver, a few inches taller was brash, loud, and always looking to find the next adventure. Despite them having very similar eyes, Oliver's eyes radiated energy. At times it seemed as though you were looking into two suns as you stared at them. Dan appeared to tower over the boys by virtue of being merely slightly below average height.

Dan took his school items which had all been meticulously laid out the night before, and followed the boys out of their room. Oliver was quite animated today and seemed especially keen on talking to Dan.

"You seem off Dan," Oliver said, "you're listening way more to me today rather than just being all robot mode like normal!"

"Did something happen to you," Marty added.

Dan couldn't answer that question, the last few days, maybe weeks were blank. Fuzz details of meeting these people float through his mind, unattached to any broader story connecting them together.

"I guess I'm just in a good mood," he said. It felt as though he had not spoken for years.

"See! Even your voice sounds different!"

Oliver continued to regale the two with stories of his exploits while they had been apart. They walked at a brisk pace as they began to near the academic buildings. As Dan looked upon all the scenery around it felt familiar, but that he was looking upon it all with new eyes. The students, the trees, the animals everything was seen in a new light. Dan could see a certain student from some distance away. She had reddish brown hair and a very sour expression. It appeared as though she was looking towards them. She was walking towards them at a pretty swift pace. This would probably not end well.

"Marty Adams," a voice cried out.

All three boy's attention was on the girl standing before them. Her cheeks had turned slightly red from the exertion and she was breathing a little harder than usual. It was easy to tell that she was well put together from her clothing. Her dress was free of wrinkles or creases to a startling degree. Her hair was brushed and composed, one would even call it formulaic. Her green eyes pierced into you with their color and intensity. The girl before them seemed as though she had stepped out of a teenage fashion magazine, save for one feature. The grimace on her face was a mix of emotions, disgust was clear, however a certain level of excitement could be seen in the tension of her eyes and hands.

"It took me some time to find you National champion," she said, "but I want my payback now!"

Marty shrank at the words of the girl and he began to position himself behind Dan and Oliver. Dan recognized these details and they seemed to add information to the mess of memories he possessed. Marty was the best duelist of students their age from the US. In fact, all three of these people had been at that tournament. The girl before them was Jane Steiner, the person who had lost to Marty in the final. She was well known for being headstrong and proud.

"Back off Jane," Oliver interjected, "if anyone is getting payback its me!"

Jane stifled a chuckle as she heard Oliver's words.

"You again little mouse? I don't have time to deal with children today, let the adults talk."

"We'll see who the mouse is after I beat you!" Oliver activated his duel disk in a rage.

"What are you stupid? Fine, I could use a warmup anyway!"

Jane: 8000

Oliver: 8000

"Go first little mouse, I'll give you the courtesy," Jane said.

"Fine! I draw, and first I'll summon Jurrac Stauriko (500/400) in attack mode!"

The flaming dinosaur appeared on the field in front of Oliver. The holograms of the monsters seemed able to emanate the effects of heat.

"I'll place two and end."

"I draw, and play Defender of the Ice Barrier (200/1600) in defense mode. Next I'll play Medalion of the Ice Barrier to add an Ice Barrier monster from my deck to my hand. The one I choose is Prior of the Ice Barrier (1000/400), who allows me to special summon him to the field if I already have an Ice Barrier monster on the field. Then I'll set one and end."

In a flurry of action, a fox and man, both bearing the same icy symbol arose from nothing to take their place in Jane's command. A large card laid face down behind them.

"My turn," Oliver said drawing his card, "First I'll activate Royal Decree. So all trap cards beside this one are now negated.

"For both their fiery attitudes they're playing quite conservatively don't you think?"

Dan recognized that Marty was talking to him during the duel.

"I guess so," Dan said cautiously, "why do you think that is?"

"Well Oliver is pretty cautious about Defender's effect so he knows he cant actually get rid of any of those monsters. It looks like they both want to control the back rows first before they actually engage each other. Oliver is at a disadvantage with that strategy but he has to get rid of those back rows and get some monsters in the graveyard so he can start directing the duel by his terms."

"Whoa that's a lot of information. Do you think Oliver will win?"

"Honestly, probably not. Jane is a better duelist than him outright. And I don't think his deck does well against Jane's. But I guess he can't just let things go. He did lost to her at Nationals."

All of the duelists involved were American, including Dan, that was something he was realizing. But what he couldn't puzzle out was what exactly was the target or the subject? Looking down at his jacket he could see that it was red, just like his dream had said. The jackets of all the others were also red, that meant Slifer. But the target, who ever that was, was in Ra Yellow. Dan realized Marty was looking quite expectedly at him now and felt flustered.

"Right, uh, that's a really good analysis I think. Maybe you should be Oliver's advisor."

Marty seemed to beam slightly at the praise, and Dan noted this. Unsure of what else might jog his memory, Dan continued on in conversation.

"So why do you think Jane is so intent on dueling you right now Marty?"

"Well I guess now that she found me, she can't wait to duel me again."

"I guess that could be true, but don't you think its weird? I mean she's so proud shouldn't she have lost other times while she was here? Especially since she's in Slifer."

"That's true, but we're Americans all of us, and being the best American seems to mean quite a lot to her I think."

"I don't know," Dan said, "maybe she has a crush on you or something."

"What? Why would you be so mean to someone you have a crush on?"

Dan could only shrug, but it seemed that he might have struck a nerve as well.

"I would never be interested in her, not in the slightest! Besides, I'm not even… interested."

Dan could sense there was some subtext to that last comment, but as the duel reached its crescendo he couldn't tease it out. Oliver now had a large flaming dinosaur similar to a tyrannosaurus. Meanwhile Jane now possessed an icy dragon. These two titans prepared to do battle as Oliver's monster rushed forward.

"I play my trap card Half Unbreak," Jane said, "now Gungnir can't be destroyed by battle and damage I take is halved."

Just as the dinosaur reached its target a swarm of bubbles surrounded the monster. As the monster attacked with its flaming jaws all it could get were bubbles. The dragon underneath unharmed.

Jane: 50

Oliver: 800

"Now its my turn," Jane said, "and playtime has ended for you now kid! I activate Gungnir's effect. I discard two to remove two cards from the field. I'll pick your Giganoto and your one face down. Then I'll attack you directly to win!"

The dragon's eyes flashed with a mystical power as it began to gather together its icy strength. With a blast of frigid air it blew away the dinosaur and the card in front of Oliver. Then full of rage it charged towards him unleashing a full blast of icy breath. The force of the attack seemed to push Oliver to his knees. The victory was enough to bring a pretentious smile to Jane's face.

"Aww, you're bowing to me now? Nice to see you understand how things work now."

"Shut up," Oliver said as he rose back up to his feet, "no one even wants you here! Why don't you just leave us alone!"

"As if I care about any of your opinions! I'll do whatever I want! But fine! After such an easy win against you, I would probably wipe the floor with Marty. The company you keep says a lot about you after all."

Jane turned towards the school building and walked away. She held her head high as if a queen of a foreign nation.

"Be ready if I get bored enough to duel you Marty."

Dan helped Oliver to his feet as the three stared at the figure fading into the scenery.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan stared out at the vast ocean behind his dorm. He had learned a lot of useful information for surviving at Duel Academy, but nearly nothing about how he got here. School was easy enough, it wasn't possible to fail since the only thing that was graded was their ability to duel. Other subjects were more like tutoring than they were any school setting, but as Dan searched his mind he couldn't find any experience of this "typical" school that everyone talked about. Still listening to the problems and thoughts of his roommates had filled in many of the blanks for him so the puzzle at least was shrinking.

"Dan what are you doing here by yourself," one passerby said.

"Just thinking, don't worry about me."

"You sure do that a lot. Though to be fair I guess I wouldn't spend a lot of time in your room either."

The room he was in was said to be the most coveted room in the entire Slifer Red campus. Looking around you would be hard pressed to find why. Three desks were pushed together in a tight line along with the triple bunk bed that took up the majority of the space. A TV that was about twenty years old sat next to the tables, and a single book shelf capped off the sparse furniture of the room. An over head light lit the best room in the dorm. By the standards of other rooms on campus it was roughing it. But it had one quality that anyone else in the complex would kill to have. It was the former room of three of the most famous duelist to ever come out of Duel Academy. At first it was just a legend among Slifers, but after the retooling of the school to make Slifer the first year dorm, it became a world wide urban legend. The students who stayed in Jaden, Syrus, and Chumley's room were destined for greatness. It was a point of pride to even be allowed to live with one desk to split amongst the three of us. Personally, Dan would have traded the prestige of living here for a dresser to keep his clothing in, but it wasn't all bad.

Dan pulled out the black deck box that he always had attached to his hip, per school code, and scanned the cards within. Every time these pictures and words roused something within him but nothing that actually brought back a tangible memory. Chain Dog, Key Mouse, Rescue Cat, they were all beasts, but how did that relate to him? There was no real strategy amongst the cards besides to fill space it seemed. The mystery surrounding them only deepened the issue of his past.

"There you are!" A loud voice called down to him from the stairs of the second floor. Oliver leapt off of the second floor balcony onto the grass below him. He rolled elegantly into place next to Dan.

"Nice. It only took you eight tries to do that right."

"If you want to make an omelet then you need to break a few eggs! Now come on! I have a very important thing to talk to you about."

"Why can't you tell me right now," Dan said turning back to the ocean. He felt a hand dragging his shirt up the hill towards their room.

"I'll explain in a minute, but really I need you to come on! Marty is already waiting for us!"

Oliver knew that this shirt was his weakness. The Slifer Red t-shirts were the only way to avoid having to wear the dorky blazers that came with the uniform. He won this shirt in a prize raffle and there weren't exactly a ton of these laying around. Thus Dan was very careful to avoid it being damaged.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming."

"Hurry then!" Oliver was already back to the staircase as he called to his roommate.

Dan took one single look back at the ocean. Any new pieces to the puzzle would have to wait then.

Inside their room, Oliver was standing atop the trio of desks with a chart plastered to the wall. At his feet sat a book which made Dan's eyes go wide.

"Is that my journal?"

"Now that you're here we can begin," Oliver said, "and close the door while you're at it. I can't let people know about my plans."

"Can you just get on with this," Marty said, "we're all here now."

"Alright alright, I have a very important plan and you all need to hear this," Oliver said.

Both Marty and Dan were sitting on their floor eager to find out what was so worthy of gaining their undivided attention.

"So listen guys, there's this girl. Her name is Michelle. She's a little on the taller side and she seems to be a bit of a lone wolf. The thing is though that she's gorgeous, probably the most beautiful girl at this whole school. She's already a student here so she's gotta be a talented duelist on top of that. The complete package!"

"And so you want us to help you with your plan to do what," Marty said with a smile on his face.

"You guys? You guys are just going to sit and watch the magic happen. I'm going to find her in the commons where she is all the time reading a book and talk to her! And then after I've laid on the charm, obviously I'm going to ask her out!"

"Where would you even ask her out to," Dan said, "I don't think there are a bunch of great places to go around here."

"Well thanks to your contributions Dan, I know a ton of amazing nature spots!"

Dan didn't particularly like that his journal was being used to bolster Oliver's romantic life. But there was dangerous information in there for someone like Oliver to know. Dan would need to get that away from him immediately.

"Oh so if you've read the journal you know the best spot of all," Dan said.

"Of course! It's the waterfall deep in the woods! Couples go there and make out all the time!"

"You're going to try and kiss her on your first date," Marty said shaking his head in disapproval.

"You're getting our timeline all confused now," Oliver said, "those things can wait."

"No I don't think you've read very deeply into this journal," Dan said rising to his feet. He strolled across the room to take the book into his hands but was blocked by Oliver's foot. He flipped the pages with his finger as if there was a deep secret within them.

"Don't think that will work on me Dan. I've read your profiles of us too! You think I can't stand to not know a secret! I know you're bluffing."

Dan's façade cracked for a second. If he had read their profiles, then it might get ugly in here really quickly. It would be important for him to make sure that Oliver didn't go running his big mouth.

"Well since you're so well versed in the journal you should already know a fair bit about Michelle."

"What do you mean? You didn't have anything about her in the journal?"

"Didn't I? I distinctly remember writing about a girl in the common room who just **loved** Utada Hikaru. You could always hear it blasting through her headphones."

Oliver's trust in his reading of the journal was starting to fade. What Dan had said was totally true, he had in fact observed all of this. However, this was information he had yet to write into the journal just yet. The force under the journal was starting to loosen though as Oliver wavered on whether he had missed something or not. Just a little more and he would be able to wrench it free.

"Well I do remember him writing something-"

"Stop right there," Dan said, "duel me right now for the right to share that information."

A smile crept to Oliver's face. "You're on."

Rather than go through the song and dance of using the holograms, both opted just to use the cards themselves. Dan and Oliver seated across from each other and pulled their cards together. Marty got up into his bed to better see what was going on. He pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote their life points on it.

"I'll be the scoreboard," Marty said from above them. He turned the sheet around to make it visible to them.

Oliver: 8000

Dan: 8000

"I'll go first," Oliver said. "I play Jurrac Aelo (200/200) in attack mode and set one card."

Dan should have been nervous. His deck had next to no synergy and against an experienced opponent like Oliver this would be nearly impossible to pull off. But Dan was thinking one step ahead in a different respect. All he needed to do was get that journal and the outcome of this room was irrelevant. The journal was on the table next to them. Oliver had it placed slightly towards him. If Dan lunged for it right now he wouldn't be able to get it before Oliver's quick reflexes pulled it away. He would have to wait for him to be engrossed in this duel.

"Alright I'll play Giant Rat (1400/1450) in attack mode and end."

"Not a good draw huh? You should really get a better deck." Oliver drew a card and smiled. He probably had received something good.

"The first thing I'll do is summon Jurrac Velo(1700/1000)." He placed the red dinosaur card next to his other monster. "Next I'll reveal my facedown Royal Decree. So now you can't play any traps. Finally I'll attack your rat with Velo."

Removing the card from his side of the field, Dan placed the monster in the grave yard. Marty scribbled the changed result on the sheet of paper.

Oliver: 8000

Dan: 7700

"Fair enough," Dan said. He knew his stall tactic was working. "I'm going to use my monster's effect to summon another weaker monster from my deck and I choose Nimble Momonga (1000/100)."

"Your turn also Dan. Impress me."

"The first thing I'll do is play a set card. Then I'll end." Dan could read Oliver like a book. He probably thought that set card was a magic card to stop an attack. His monster would only be able to give Dan more life points because of Nimble's effect so he was teasing out a way around this. Oliver drew a card and Dan knew the window for him to strike was coming.

"I'll sacrifice both of my monsters to summon Jurrac Titano (3000/2800) his effect lets me banish one of my Jurrac monsters to raise his attack by 1000 till the end of my turn. Now I'll attack your monster!"

Dan theatrically swept away his card and deposited it into the graveyard. Nimble's effect meant he only lost 2000 points rather than 3000.

"I'm going to activate Nimble Momonga's effect which lets me summon all of my copies of this card to the field in defense position. Unfortunately, I don't have any other copies."

"Wait what," Oliver said, "if you don't have any copies of the card then why would you tell me that?"

Before Oliver could even finish the sentence Dan had launched himself at the desk. The split second of misdirection along with the swift movement from Dan meant there was no time to defend. Dan collected the journal into his arms however the momentum of his leap carried him further across the room. He flew all the way onto the second of three desks which lined the wall, landing face first.

"Mission accomplished," Dan said rolling over. Oliver was fuming.

"That's not fair at all! I thought we were dueling!"

"We were dueling and then I saw an opportunity to get back what you took from me."

"Is that why you were sandbagging?"

"Obviously. I could just give up right now and it would be about the same. I don't have any monsters in my hand."

"Well I'll just tell Marty what you wrote about him," Oliver said turning to their roommate.

"You mean that he snores really loudly sometimes? I wasn't really worried about that; I just didn't want you snooping any further before you stumbled across something really embarrassing."

"What! You tricked me twice! What the hell dude!"

"I'm not the one who went through someone's stuff and read things without permission!"

Marty was eating the drama up with a spoon. It was all he had to avoid laughing hysterically at the scene. Oliver continued to argue that it wasn't fair but Dan wouldn't move an inch. Oliver lunged at Dan to wrestle the journal from him but Dan was too quick and clever to be grappled. He slithered his way back to his bed before Oliver finally gave up on regaining the journal.

After a few minutes the energy of that moment had began to dissipate and the three were settling back into normalcy. Dan, after pulling off that maneuver, was clutching his journal tightly. He would need to find a new hiding place for it. Meanwhile Oliver resumed his fawning over Michelle.

"You're not the only guy who has noticed her," Marty said, "you sometimes hear guys talking about her all the time."

"Yeah but none of those guys are me!"

"Famous last words," Marty said in a low voice.

"It's only 3pm though," Dan said from his bed. "Why don't you go ask her right now?"

"W-well that's a little fast don't you think? I would really prefer to work my way up to it."

"What's wrong Mr. Cassanova? Are you getting cold feet now?" Marty was making hearts with his hand from his bed.

"No! Never! But just so soon?"

"Yeah right now," Dan said. "I didn't come all the way here so you could just talk about it. She's probably in the common room right now, you read that in my journal didn't you?"

Dan grabbed Oliver by the jacket and began to pull him towards the door. It was met with slight resistance. Oliver resigned himself to facing his big plans today. Marty was hooting and hollering as he jumped off his bed.

"Let's see how charming you really are then!"


End file.
